Jobless checks to soon stop for 183,000 in South Florida

June 25, 2010|By Marcia Heroux Pounds, Sun Sentinel

U.S. senators' failure to extend jobless benefits could mean more than 57,000 in Broward County currently on unemployment insurance will see their only income disappear this summer or fall. Another 39,000 jobless workers in Palm Beach County and 87,000 in Miami-Dade County also will lose benefits, the state work force agency said Friday.

The Senate failed for the third time on Thursday to act on extending unemployment benefits through November. In Florida, more than 34,000 residents each week are seeing their jobless lifeline cut short. The final week of payment for anyone receiving existing emergency benefits is Nov. 6.

"I'm scared," said Suzi Clerke, of Margate, who now worries how she will pay her mortgage, which she has managed to keep current on unemployment payments since she lost her job at a Pompano Beach casino in September 2009. Her federal emergency benefits will end in July.

Clerke said she looks for a job every day, handing out her business cards to anyone who will listen. "I expected to work until I couldn't work," said Clerke, 62.

Without further congressional action, South Florida's unemployed say they'll lose their homes and health insurance and be unable to pay for basic living expenses. They don't understand why some of the nation's unemployed have received up to 99 weeks of unemployment payments while they are being cut off. Some are losing benefits after just the initial 26 weeks from the state, the standard jobless benefit in a normal economy.

Many say they've written, e-mailed, called and pleaded with their congressional representatives, who they say don't seem to understand the wide-reaching impact of unemployment on the economy. While other parts of the nation are showing some recovery, Florida still has nearly record-high unemployment of 11.7 percent and the state is third highest in foreclosures.

Republican senators blamed a growing federal deficit burden for the defeat of the bill. After eight weeks of debate, Senate Democrats scaled back the bill's cost, but not one Republican voted to advance the legislation. Florida's senators split down party lines in their votes, with Democrat Bill Nelson voting for it and Republican George LeMieux against it.

"I understand they can't keep allowing the deficit [to get] larger, but this is a huge crisis that's going on," said Dawn Daugherty, 56, a financial adviser in Coral Springs who lost her job in December. "But they bailed out the banks. They bailed out the auto industry. They kept companies from going under."

Daugherty said she is losing her unemployment benefits after just 26 weeks while she knows other unemployed individuals who are on their third extension.

Unemployed workers contend they've been looking for jobs, but are often competing with hundreds of applicants for each position. Jobs are in short supply for those in construction, finance and other industries that experienced the double whammy of Florida's housing crisis and the nation's recession. Only health care and private education have added jobs in the state.

"I used to make $700 a week. You can't compare that to the unemployment check I'm getting," said Andy Castillo, 40, who was laid off from his South Florida construction job more than a year ago. The maximum weekly unemployment is $275 a week in Florida.

"I was paying for my house with the [unemployment] check. Now I'm going to have to stop paying. There's nothing else you can do," said Castillo, who has a wife and three children.

A new bill that only addresses unemployment insurance could be the next step for proponents of an extension, said Judy Conti, lobbyist for the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for the unemployed. Some Republicans didn't support the previous legislation because other provisions in the bill could have put an additional tax burden on business, Conti said.

"There is agreement across the aisles we want to keep these programs up and running. We need to move it as a stand-alone," said Conti, who is hopeful there will be new legislation in the coming weeks. "They have the appropriate sense of urgency," she said.

J. Antonio Villamil, economist and business school dean at St. Thomas University in Miami, said he understands both sides of the argument in Congress: Adding to the deficit only postpones "the day of reckoning" because unemployment insurance taxes on business will eventually have to be increased. But reducing government spending too quickly also could result in less consumer spending and also hurt the economic recovery.

Villamil said Congress should consider extending unemployment benefits for another six months until the job market improves and then end the program. But he would like to see the benefits more closely tied to job placement and retraining.

Ashoya Reid, 27, of Royal Palm Beach, has been retraining for a new career since the mother of two lost her job in customer service. She was counting on her jobless benefits to pay for rent and minimal day care while she attends school.